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Guilt criticism in the kite runner
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When Amir betrays Hassan and doesn’t save him from a horrible incident, Amir becomes guilty for his actions, but when his mistake is accepted by his friend, Amir overcomes his guilt. Amir, who is the son of a rich man spends his days with his servant’s son, Hassan. Amir and Hassan spend days flying kites and running down kites in the alleys of Kabul. Amir is often criticized for being the friend of Hassan, who is his servant’s son and a part of a lower ethical group. One day when Hassan is running down a kite for Amir, he is cornered by older Afghan kids, who abuse, harass and rape him. Amir is looking for Hassan and spots him getting raped but does nothing to save him. Amir becomes guilty of his actions and starts to repent.
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He stops talking to Hassan for it reminds him of his betrayal. Amir plants his watch under Hassan’s pillow so that Hassan is accused of stealing and is forced to leave the house which gets rid of Amir’s guilt. When Amir’s father asks Hassan about the stealing incident, Hassan agrees that he stole the watch since he knew that Amir was the one who planted the watch there but didn’t want Amir to get in trouble. When Hassan takes the sacrifice, Amir realizes that Hassan knew about how he had betrayed him. Amir thinks he is not worthy of the sacrifice but realizes that his friend has pardoned him and that their lives can move on. “Hassan knew. He knew I’d seen everything in that alley, that I’d stood there and done nothing. He knew I had betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time. I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I’d ever loved anyone, and I wanted to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn’t worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief. And I would have told, except that a part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over with soon.” (111) In this passage, there is a clear representation that Amir gets rid of his guilt due to his friend accepting his mistake.
As Amir says “he knew I had betrayed him” it refers to Amir watching over Hassan getting raped and doing nothing to save his friend. It shows that there has been an act of betrayal that has happened between the 2 boys which causes Amir to feel guilty. Amir feels guilty but realizes his mistake has been accepted by his friend which now makes Amir feel better. He realizes this because Hassan takes a sacrifice for him. The “rescuing” refers to Hassan taking the blame of stealing Amir’s watch when he knew it was Amir who had planted the watch under Hassan’s pillow. If Hassan didn’t take the blame, Amir would have gotten in trouble which would have forced Amir to explain the reason why he betrayed his friend which would involve Amir exposing the rape incidence. For Hassan taking the blame, Amir realizes his mistake is accepted because otherwise, Hassan would not have taken the sacrifice but since he knew that Amir would have gotten in trouble for not saving Hassan, he took the blame. Amir then thinks he is not worthy of the sacrifice and calls himself many ridiculous names. The “monster in the lake,” refers to the one causing a damage in their friendship since in one of Hassan’s dreams, he dreams about the 2 boys swimming in a lake that is alleged to have a monster, but it turns out that there is no monster. With Amir calling himself “the monster in the lake,” …show more content…
he is calling himself the one at fault for destroying the relationship, which shows that he feels guilty about himself and his actions. As Amir says “I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief,” it shows that Amir is guilty since he is calling himself unpleasant and unusual names because when one feels guilty, they often try to clear guilt by blaming themselves and calling themselves names. Amir soon realizes his mistake is accepted and his guilt is gone because he is glad that everything would be over. Amir doesn’t have to be guilty for his actions because he now knows that Hassan has forgiven him by taking a sacrifice which shows his love for Amir even after the rape incident. Amir is free to feel guilty of himself since he is now accepted by another. Such an interpretation clearly represents guilt can be overcome if there is acceptance by another. Conclusion Acceptance and Guilt are thoroughly represented in this novel many times.
The interaction of acceptance and guilt provide a positive result for Amir as they allow him to override the guilt he has for many years After Amir has realized he has been accepted by his friend Hassan and his uncle Rahim Khan, Amir overcomes his guilt and when he has no one to talk to and is left alone at night to repent on his actions, his guilt continues to rise which proves that acceptance is needed in order to overcome guilt. Guilt and acceptance are powerful emotions in our human body and can influence our bodies and mind into believing false situations like when Amir believes he is not worthy of Hassan’s sacrifice. Guilt and acceptance both put our bodies into despondent situations and wish to be in more joyous situations for example when Amir feels dejected and an insomniac and wishes to be in a better position. In this novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir successfully is able to get rid of his guilt upon realizing that he has been accepted. At other times, he is unable to swallow his guilt due to the lack of acceptance. When Amir questions himself at night for his actions, he wishes to be accepted by others and when he is not heard, his guilt continues to frighten him. When Rahim Khan calls Amir back to Pakistan, Amir realizes Rahim has accepted his mistake and his guilt goes away. When Hassan makes a sacrifice for Amir, Amir realizes Hassan has accepted his mistake which makes
Amir get rid of his guilt. In this respect, one can clearly say that in order to overcome guilt, acceptance by another is necessary to defeat that guilt.
Amir is, to be put bluntly, a coward. He is led by his unstable emotions towards what he thinks will plug his emotional holes and steps over his friends and family in the process. When he sought after Baba’s invisible love, Amir allowed Hassan to be raped in an alleyway just so that the blue kite, his trophy that would win his father’s heart, could be left untouched. In the end, he felt empty and unfulfilled with the weight of his conscience on his shoulders comparable to Atlas’ burden. Unable to get over his fruitless betrayal, he lashes out and throws pomegranates at Hassan before stuffing money and a watch under his loyal friend’s pathetic excuse for a bed, framing Hassan for theft and directly causing the departure of both servants from his household. Even after moving to America, finding a loving wife, and creating a career for himself in writing, he still feels hollow when thinking of his childhood in Afghanistan. Many years later, he is alerted of Hassan’s death and sets out on a frenzied chase to find his friend’s orphaned son. He feels that he can somehow ease his regrets from all of those years ago if he takes in Hassan’s son, Sohrab. He finds Sohrab as a child sex slave for Assef, who coincidentally was the one to rape Hassan all of those years ago. After nearly dying in his attempt to take back Sohrab, he learns that he can take the damaged child back to the states with him. Sadly, Hassan’s son is so
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
Clearly, Amir hears how his father compares the two, and unlike Hassan who manages to meet Baba’s expectations, Amir grows bitter towards Hassan. He is unable to fight off his envy which later causes him to sacrifice his best friend’s innocence: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (82), and this is all because he realizes “his shame is complicated by his own realization that in part he doesn’t help his friend precisely because he is jealous of him” (Corbett, 2006). From here, Amir develops strong feelings of guilt that induces him to perform even more destructive acts, such as having Hassan and his father evicted from the house. Amir not only loses a close friend, but now he has to continue to live with remorse as he dwells on these memories.
While Amir is a Sunni, his childhood friend Hassan is Shi’a, an inferior division of Islam. Simultaneously, Amir and Hassan belong to different ethnic groups-Amir is Pashtun while Hassan is Hazara. During his childhood, Amir would constantly mock Hassan’s illiteracy and poke fun at him. But, the pivotal demonstration of pressure from his surroundings that makes Amir commit his own act of cruelty is when he watches Assef rape Hassan for refusing to give him the kite that Hassan caught for Amir. To this, Amir describes the look of Hassan’s face to “a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (76). Throughout his upbringing, Amir constantly believed that his father blamed him for killing his mother in childbirth. To Amir, Hassan’s rape is a sacrifice that Hassan has to pay the price, the lamb to kill, in order to win his father over. To justify his refusal to intervene, Amir reminds himself that “[Hassan] was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” (77). Amir’s surroundings cause him to have a negative outlook on people that his society deem lower. Amir knows he is morally wrong for not helping Hassan, but his need for his father’s love overpowers his friendship. Adding to his pressures, Amir believes that Baba prefers Hassan over him, a belief that further drives him to be cruel to Hassan. As a result, Amir’s motivation for validation and love from his father
... Finally, Amir chooses to redeem himself by opting to protect Hassan’s son Sohrab. The guilt which estranged Amir from his childhood friend in a way manages to reunite him with Hassan, albeit in a different manner. Thereby, the two works that are Macbeth and The Kite Runner not only present before the humanity, the immense power and potency of guilt, but also emphatically reveal the eventual consequences of the guilt traceable to an evil act or an act of cowardice or betrayal. These two works expose the psychology of guilt in a very vivid and threadbare manner, which explains their appeal and the human interest they accrue.
Amir goes through many events that take place in the book that change him, and the way he is perceived within the book. Amir is a young boy, who is tortured by his father’s scrutinizing character. Amir is also jealous of Hassan, because of the fact that his father likes Hassan instead of Amir. Amir fights for his father’s approval, interest, and love. This is when Amir changes for the good as he deals with the guilt of the rape of Hassan. Amir witnessed Hassan getting raped, but decides to nothing in order to win over his father’s interest. The guilt that Amir builds up is carries from his premature times as a child to his mature times. From Afghanistan to
In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator’s monotonous tone makes the reader experience a lack of emotion and feeling. The novel starts off describing Mersault’s current job and how he must go on leave in order to attend his mother’s funeral. He and his mother have been disconnected for some time as they had come to a mutual agreement with her staying in an elderly home. Mersault, the main protagonist, did not have the money or time to tend to his mother. The elderly home was the best option for the both of them. When he returns home from the funeral, Mersault gets caught up in external affairs he should not be in. He ends up writing a break up letter to Raymond’s girlfriend, which drives the rest of the story. Raymond beats his
The novel tells the story of, Amir. Amir is portrayed as the protagonist; the novel revolves around his recollection of past events 26 years ago as a young boy in Afghanistan. Amir is adventures and brave. Hassan is Amir’s closets friend and servant to his house and is portrayed as a subservient male, often supporting and accepting blame for Amir’s actions. Assef, Wali and Kamal are the “ bad guys” within the novel; Wali and Kamal hold down Hassan and Assef rapes him purely for ethnicity differences, as Hassan is a Hazara. Afghanistan boys are supposed to be athletic and true to Islam .The leaving of Soraya Hassan mother with another man gives the notion that women lack morality leaving behind there children .The Taliban laws are followed closely within Afghanistan and women are treated without any rights, beatings, stoning and execution become the reality for women who violate the laws. Culturally Afghanistan women are portrayed to be subservient to there husband only live and breath to provide children, cook food and clean their
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
The words that previously damned Amir to his guilt ridden prison, release Amir, allowing him to finally gain closure for pitfalls and mistakes in his life. Although it takes twenty six years, Amir finally becomes the man he was always destined to be through the physical and emotional growth he faces on his own path to atonement.
Growing up in Afghanistan, Amir is blessed with the fruits of luxury and the friendship of Hassan. Baba who is Amir’s father is an incredibly wealthy man but seems to admire Hassan for his courage and “manliness”, a trait that lacks in Amir’s character. Reasons for Amir’s cowardice was the fact he was protected in a cocoon of safety that was created by Hassan and his father Baba. Amir Plagued by cowardice, starving for his
Amir also committed a sin that affected him negatively throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir’s best friend during his childhood, was getting raped by Assef. This situation occurred when the children were chasing kites. Hassan got the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan. Because Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape Hassan as a “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend out, Amir just walked away from the scene and let Hassan get violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan quietly walked back home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef for. The kite in this situation proves to be an important symbol. Whereas earlier in the novel the kite represented happiness and fun to Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt to Amir. The only reason that Hassan got raped was that he was trying to get a kite for Amir. Now the kite acts a reminder to Hassan of his wrong-doing and it will now begin to haunt him for a long time. Although when in America, Amir does not get reminded about Hassan, deep inside he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel the most guilt when he goes to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir’s childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unatoned sins”(Hosseini 2).
The other source of tension in Amir’s life is his relationship with Baba, his hard-driving and demanding father. Desperate to win his father’s affection and respect, Amir turns to the sport of kite flying, and at the age of 12, with the assistance of Hassan, he wins the annual tournament in Kabul. Amir’s victory soon is tarnished when he witnesses a vicious assault against his friend, who raced through the streets of Kabul to retrieve the last kite, Amir had sliced from the sky, and fails to come to his aid. Amir’s cowardness is compounded by a later act of betrayal that causes Ali and Hassan to leave their home, and he now faces the nightmare, bearing the burden of his poor choices for the rest of his life.
A large part of the novel deals with Amir trying to redeem himself. First with his Baba by trying to win the kite fighting tournament because Amir feels as though his father blames him for his mothers death. The the larger act of redemption occurs when trying to rid himself of the guilt of letting Hassan be rape...
When Amir finds Hassan his is trapped at the end of an alley by Assef, Wali and Kama. Hassan’s pants are taken down and he is held back by Wali and Kama while Assef rapes him. Amir runs away form the alley and leaves his friend who once stood up for him trapped in the alley. Amir has a lot of guilt for what happened to Hassan but, Hassan feels worse for being the outsider who got raped without a thing he could do to stop it from happening.